Chapter 6. 3 years old

After I showed off my talent in magic, I was able to practice all kinds of spells in the garden without a worry. As long as someone watched over me.

It was great.

There were many spells that I couldn't cast at home, for example fire spells or something with a large effect like a Water Wall.

It would be too impractical for me to hide if I wanted to improve my skill in magic.

After practicing in the garden during the first half of a day under the eye of Zenith or Lilia, I would then secretly expel the rest of my accumulated mana during the second half of a day - either by condensing Intermediate ranked spells that I learned in secret or by expelling it out raw.

Meanwhile Paul continued swinging his sword in the garden.

In regards to my swordsman training, one year ago I have already begun semi-serious physical conditioning, secretly doing sets of push-ups, squats, frog-jumps and others.

I did it whenever Paul was away in the morning to avoid his eyes, since my training was sometimes a bit too methodical for a 1-2 year old child.

As I reached 2 years old, I planned to no longer hide myself with my training and take it even more seriously.

I would keep careful track of my total volume, intensity, progress and nutrition.

Sometimes I would do calisthenics in secret, sometimes I would pretend to imitate Paul while he trained. A bit of flexibility training was also included.

My skill in manipulating Earth magic was not yet good enough to create proper training equipment, so for the time being I was limited to creating stone dumbbells and barbells that were mostly just the bar. To make them heavier, I would simply make them longer.

One thing that changed in my training at 2 years old was that I no longer included blocks of meditation in my schedule. I didn't even meditate before sleep, as I didn't want my brain to associate the state of focus and concentration with me going to sleep.

Instead, I would mindfully meditate between my strength-training sets, paying close attention to the state of my body as I was calming down my racing heart rate and breathing.

I believe it was the most optimal way.

In conclusion, I continued training my magic and mana, continued exercising my brain and body, while Zenith, Lilia and also Paul continued teaching me the language.

…

Time passed.

Two weeks after I started practicing magic outside the house.

I quickly mastered all of the Elementary ranked spells and experimented with them to improve my mana control. 

During this time I also secretly learned most of the Intermediate ranked spells.

Fortunately, all that I needed to do was to quietly manage to chant an Intermediate ranked magic once and then I could do it silently.

Once I did something like casting Ex-Flame into the sky, Zenith would brush it off if she had not heard me, probably thinking that I just shot out a large Fireball.

Afterwards, when I cast magic voicelessly, no one could tell whether it was a powered-up Elementary ranked spell or an Intermediate ranked spell. And it was especially true since I could reduce the size and power of my spells.

This way, I was practicing Intermediate rank magic and no one knew about it.

Because I couldn't just make my spells as powerful and huge as possible, as it would attract too much attention, to increase my control of magic I did things like this:

For example, I would create Intermediate ranked <Explosion > fireballs that are small in size yet contain very intense and concentrated heat as I try to push in as much mana into them as possible, but not release them in the end.

Or I would create a small icicle field, using Intermediate ranked <Ice Pillar>, but I would only produce an average amount of ice yet focus on making it extremely cold and hard.

Or I would create an earth wall or a rock bullet, trying to make them as dense and strong as possible.

All of these didn't look very impressive on the surface, but they pushed my ability to concentrate my mana into a spell to the maximum.

What was more frowned upon by my parents was when I was shooting out rock bullets and wind blasts at the maximum speed to practice improving the speed of my spells, and at full power it was causing loud sonic booms.

However, I believed that spell speed was one of the most important aspects of my training, so I still did it.

After all, it's meaningless how strong a spell is if it cannot hit the target!

For this, I practiced the firing speed of my spells every day, shooting out rock bullets from my window at the stone dummies I would previously create in the courtyard.

I wish I could go all out to cause huge explosions, walls of ice and shoot out missle-sized projectiles to truly exercise my mana 'output', but I think that my magic training method was still better than that of Rudeus in the novel who was only creating water balls inside his room around the same time.

At the same time, I also practiced adjusting the shape of my spells to improve my magical dexterity and finer control. Whether it was changing the shape of earth spells, ice spells or even water and fire spells.

***

Eventually, a full year passed, seasons changed and it was summer once again.

Today I was 3 years old.

Over the last year I mastered all the Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced spells of the four attack types from the magical guidebook through self-study.

Silently, of course.

In addition, Zenith also taught me Elementary and Intermediate healing magic, as well as Elementary rank Detoxification magic.

I discovered that there was no special secret to mastering different and higher ranked spells apart from them requiring more demanding ability to manipulate mana, higher concentration and the skill to condense mana.

Most people required a long period of training to be able to learn to cast a new spell, but I could grasp them in an instant.

As long as I just knew the words of an Incantation, I could learn any Advanced-rank spell.

Throughout the year my mana reserves have also increased tremendously once again. It grew again by so much that I began suspecting that I really have the Laplace Factor.

The power of my spells was also substantial.

Just because I started training in magic as a little kid, I have already easily surpassed the great majority of expert magicians in this world.

I still continued growing my mana reserves every day, practicing mana condensation and improving my magic control by doing things like creating stone figurines, but it was difficult for me to improve in other areas.

I have gone through the guidebook countless times already.

I needed a magic tutor.

In the evening, our family of three plus Lilia had dinner together as usual.

Paul sat in the seat of honor at the end of the table, while his wife Zenith sat on his left and I sat beside her.

Opposite to me, with one empty seat separating her from Paul, sat Lilia.

Zenith held her palms clasped and recited a prayer before the meal, "Holy Milis who watches over us in distant lands, we thank you for blessing us with life-giving nourishment."

There was no special celebration, but according to my parents, I was 3 years old today.

Still, the meals were a little more extravagant today than normal, and I could clearly see the impatience and excitement on Paul's face.

"Time to eat!" As Zenith finished saying the grace, Paul announced the beginning of the meals, with several other people following suit.

"Time to eat!"

"Time to eat!"

I looked down at my bowl with a small smile.

A simple wooden bowl, a wooden spoon and a rough ceramic cup. Laying next to it, a large hand-made bun.

I first scooped up some of the cooked white beans.

These were not too delicious by any means, but the simplicity of the meal contained a certain beauty and charm.

As the meal nearly finished, Zenith spoke up, "Dear, it's about time. Seraph is already 3 years old. Go to Roa tomorrow and find a tutor for him! We'll definitely find a good magic teacher in Roa!" 

My eyes lit up when I heard this.

Finally!

After I get a tutor, I can not only improve my knowledge on magical theory, but I will also be able to finally go all out with my magic once there is a competent adult magician around to act in case of emergency.

No that there would be any emergencies, but I'm still a toddler, so I'm not surprised that Zenith and Paul worried about it.

"Seraph, from now on you'll also have to start training hard with the sword. Do you understand?" Paul asked me with a slightly stern look.

"Yes."

"...Good." Paul nodded his head. He raised his finger and continued, "Listen here. My training will be harsh. There's a possibility of you getting tired of the sword and giving up halfway."

"Uh…"

"Huh? What's with that annoyed look?" Paul asked.

"Uh. Nothing. I just don't think I'll give up. I think a sword is cool," I answered awkwardly. Did I show my emotions on my face too much?

"I see…" Paul muttered. He gave me a deep look.

He then smiled.

"Dear?" Zenith asked as Paul remained in that strange state, as if reminiscing.

Paul chuckled and shook his head. "It's nothing. I just thought back to when I was a kid. I had the exact same thoughts."

Paul grinned.

"..." I didn't know what to say.

Actually, he had these thoughts and then what happened?

Well, it isn't like I'll end up like Paul and waste the prime of my life chasing after skirts. First is strength.

Paul raised his finger again and continued lecturing, "Seraph, my first sword instructor told me that. Swordsmanship is all about how serious you are about the sword. Although you can cast magic silently, a swordsman always has an advantage against a mage. There's no demerit in you taking swordsmanship seriously as well. Become a mage who can also fight in close combat."

"Yes."

Paul nodded solemnly, then opened his mouth again.

Zenith squeezed Paul's jaw with one hand to stop him from talking. "Okay, enough. Stop this boring talk. I'm sure Seraph will do just fine! Look what I have here."

She then excitedly pulled out a large book.

I have already seen her hiding it early. She finally brought it out?

"Mom?"

Zenith placed it on the table and flipped through the pages.

The pages were empty.

Rather, it was a large notebook.

Zenith smiled. "I heard that you wanted to have a sketchbook for drawing. I got this for you, as well as some pencils."

"I always wanted one! Thanks!" My face was full of smiles. 

I always wanted more notebooks to make notes in and a sketchbook to practice my drawing skills, but there just weren't many of those in the house.

I happily received the sketchbook from Zenith and started looking it over.

Paul showed a wry smile. Zenith interrupted his serious father's speech because of this?